More than 1,000 environmentalist and leftist groups signed a post-conference petition entitled "The Future We Don't Want," a play on The Future We Want, the platitudinous document that diplomats from 188 nations agreed on there.

The report's endorsement of broadly accepted, almost platitudinous reform principles, coupled with unsupported and possibly counterproductive recommendations, renders the report of little value in improving the quality of principals.

But his popularity among more orthodox Catholics is immense and growing, and taken all in all, his feisty editorializing is a badly needed counter-balance to the dreary platitudinous blandness that is the hallmark of so much of the official Church-speak that we routinely hear and read.

I do disagree with one of Palmer's propositions, and this disagreement points toward a chief cause of the platitudinous quality that makes most of his essay dull reading: "In my view, the cognitive approach is the basis of all the others.

Moreover, I suggested, almost 13 years ago, that the SEC require by rule that proxy statements contain an essay from each board candidate explaining why he adds value to, and would be a good director for, that board--on the hope that such a required essay might contain not "vision statements" or similar platitudinous vapor but, instead, an election plea based on the candidate's personal and professional competencies ("Two Modest Proposals," Winter 1998).

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